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Common sense gun safety

SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT WITH LETHAL WEAPONS SUCH AS FIREARMS!

There are entirely too many accidents involving firearms in our country. I recently saw where a guy shot his step-son in his home because he thought he was an intruder. That was a very stupid, irresponsible mistake!

If you can’t positively identify your target, then do NOT pull that trigger!

The first and most important rule of gun handling is to not point your firearm, handgun or otherwise, at anything you do not want to kill or completely destroy. Pretty much common sense, but so many people get into bad habits…

Another rule that is often broken and causes accidents is having live ammo in the area when you are cleaning your firearm. This is NOT a safe practice.

I frequently see news stories about people being accidentally shot, sometimes fatally, in their own homes by an accidental discharge. I prefer to call these “foolish” discharges, because someone has to make a foolish mistake for this to happen. Any gun owner can make these mistakes. Not acceptable. See above….if you aren’t intentionally going to kill or destroy something or someone, then please don’t point your gun at it/them!

As for children’s’ deaths by firearms accidents, it is usually a result of someone not positively securing their firearms where children cannot access them, and further, storing loaded guns, or storing ammo in the same place as the LOCKED UP guns.

When your child is starting to crawl and get into stuff, you put “child safety devices” throughout your home (hopefully). But then when they are older and curious about different sorts of things, you don’t lock your guns up, separate from the ammo, where that curious child can get to them??? Does that make sense??

Keep ALL guns and ammo out of the reach of children, and by children, I mean people in your home under age 21, who have no safe firearms handling training. As a matter of fact, even if they are adults, keep your guns locked up anyway. If you permit them to have a gun in your home, then require the same from them.

Personally, although my son is an armed guard, my pistol stays on my side, or in a vault to which only I have the combination. It is not a matter of trust — it is a matter of common sense safety. Please take responsibility and properly store your guns and ammo…

Let’s move on a little bit and talk about range safety. When you are at a firing range, there should be a person called the “Rangemaster”. Follow his or her instructions to the letter. Before you start shoring on said range, be sure you have read all the range rules, and KNOW them.

Keep your gun pointed down range at all times, no exceptions, loading/unloading/firing/changing targets/whatever.

When you are going down range during a “cease fire”, ensure your gun is unloaded and the bolt or slide or other mechanism is out of battery. Proceed down range ONLY when a cease fire has been called. When you return, stand behind the firing line until cleared by the range master that the range is again live.

When you are finished with your session, unload your gun, take it out of battery, and put it in its case. If you need to get your target, wait for the next cease fire to do so, and follow the previous instructions.

Procedures at different ranges may vary, and this is just a basic guide. Be sure you know the specific safety procedures and rules for the range at which you are shooting.

If by chance you have the ability to shoot on private land, be sure you fire in a safe direction, taking your gun’s range capability and other pertinent factors into consideration.
Shoot at a backstop of some sort.
Be sure there are no other people in the area.
Be extra careful!

Again, all of these are general guidelines that may vary slightly from place to place.

Just please make safety first, wherever you are. When gun owners make mistakes and others get hurt, it is just purely shameful, not only to you, but also to those of us who make safety first! Please don’t give the rest of us a black eye with your own irresponsibility, thereby giving those silly anti-gun type people yet another excuse to further regulate (or even ban) guns!